Ever since Facebook launched ReactJS, it continued to gain popularity as the most developer-friendly JavaScript library for frontend development. ReactJS is unique for its component-based modular development, dynamic user interface (UI) design capabilities, and awesome performance.
Despite these strengths, ReactJS has several weaknesses as well. The biggest drawback of React is that it is not a fully-fledged framework, and naturally, it lacks a clear guiding path to help the developers. Moreover, React doesn’t offer detailed documentation in contrast to several other JavaScript frameworks.
Here we are going to have a detailed explanation of the key strengths and weaknesses of React. Before you hire a ReactJS development company for your web app project, it is important to have an understanding of these pros and cons. But it would be better if we first provide an introduction to React and its key features.
What is React, and what are its key features?
React is a JavaScript library created and maintained by Facebook. It is open-source, free, and widely used as the frontend development technology by a multitude of web and mobile app projects worldwide. When you try to find app developers with expertise in React, you need to test their knowledge of the critical React features first. Some of the key features that define React the best include the following.
- JSX: JSX refers to JavaScript code that uses XML-like syntax. Using JSX React ensures the creation of highly readable code for the app projects.
- Virtual DOM: ReactJS uses virtual DOM, which is instrumental in creating a lightweight DOM tree that can easily be saved on the server-side for faster loading time and app performance.
- One-way Data binding: The one-way data binding of React allows easy debugging, monitoring, and incorporating changes in complex and large app projects.
- Declarative UI: Thanks to this feature, there is the ease of reading React code. This results in the easy fixing of bugs.
- Component-Based: ReactJS helps build an app by using several components while the logic for each component is written in JavaScript separately. This allows faster and modular development with more controls for the developers.
Strengths of ReactJS
Now, let’s start our brief explanation of the strengths of ReactJS.
Lower learning curve
The core of ReactJS is JavaScript, which is the most common web development language. Moreover, with its simple coding syntax, React makes it further easier for new developers. As the most popular frontend technology, it also provides robust community support with a lot of training and tutorial resources.
Easy development of dynamic apps
Often developers building dynamic web apps find the HTML strings really complicated. By using easy-to-read XML syntax through JSX, React makes it easier to handle the coding. On top of that, React’s ready-to-use components make building a dynamic UI further easier.
Reusable Code
ReactJS offers a fully component-based architecture to allow reusing the same code across multiple web app projects. Every React component comes with its own logic written in JavaScript, and this helps in putting the pieces together to develop features and user interfaces in a modular way.
Awesome Performance
ReactJS uses virtual DOM, which, unlike regular DOM after updating, does not slow down the app performance. By existing entirely in the app memory, it creates a virtual copy of the DOM of the web browser. By writing and using the virtual components for the DOM, React developers ensure seamless loading and fast app performance.
Robust and ready to use tools
ReactJS is the JavaScript popularity also unique because of its great repository of ready-to-use development tools. Thanks to these tools, the developer’s tasks become easier and easily understandable. On top of everything, the developers can choose specific components they need, evaluate them, and change the present state and properties.
React is SEO optimized.
Most of the traditional JavaScript frameworks are widely known to have serious problems with SEO. There are additional difficulties in crawling web apps enriched with JavaScript code for search engines. ReactJS provides a comprehensive solution to this issue by relying on virtual DOM that can easily render and return results to the browser just as any other web address.
Easier testing
Developers also prefer ReactJS for its straightforward approach to debugging and testing. React developers, simply by using the native tools, can debug and test their apps.
Weaknesses of ReactJS
Just as the multiple strengths React framework provides, React has several drawbacks and shortcomings as well. Let’s have a look at them.
Not enough tools beyond UI development
ReactJS only encompasses the UI layer of any app. Except for UI development, all other aspects of development remain out of the periphery of ReactJS. ReactJS is incomplete as a development technology, and developers need to use other tools simultaneously.
Less evolving core
Many developers consider that the core API of React has already become very stable and stagnant, creating very less scope for changes. Most of the value additions and enhancements in React happen with React components but not with the core API. This makes React a least evolving technology. Rarely changeable.
Lack of documentation
React has a bad reputation for documentation. Since there are continuous releases of new development tools, documentation often remains the least priority. This is why developers often find it difficult to incorporate these tools in their projects.
React only takes care of the “View” part.
The model–view–controller (MVC) protocol for web UI design is preferred by developers for their comprehensive handling of multiple aspects such as API, routing, rendering, etc. But, ReactJS only takes care of the “View” part. React developers need to rely on additional tools for the other two aspects: model and controller.
Conclusion
Do you really need to React for your web app project? Well, given the strengths React already provided to the app developers. The shortcomings of React seem to be still not very insignificant. React is already the most loved JavaScript library and in the short run. It is very unlikely that React will lose this popularity.
